Anarchism & Womens Liberation

Under modern capitalism women continue to
receive lower pay then men and in many countries are still
legally discriminated against. Feminism has been used to
describe struggles against this oppression. We look at the
role of revolutionaries and in particular anarchists in
fighting for women's liberation.

Why Would Gays Want To
Marry?
The issue of gay marriage has come to the fore again recently with
both Canada and Spain approving bills to make it legal. In this
interview we talk to Judy Walsh, from the Equality Studies department
in UCD about how marriage and partnership rights are currently
constructed in Ireland.

International Women's
Day
International Women's Day is an expressly political day. In 1907
women sweatshop workers marched in New York and thus the first
International Women's day was born.

Hijab: lifting the veil
Standing up to religious oppression or state racism? Ultimately we
believe that people should have the freedom to dress whatever way
they like. This means freedom from state interference and freedom
from religious interference in how one should dress.

Anarcha-Feminism
An important principle of anarchism and one that more than any other
differentiates it from other types of socialism is its emphasis on
freedom and non-hierarchical social relations. Central to anarchism
is the rejection of any power hierarchy between men and women.

Women - still carrying the
baby at work and home!!
Over the last 100 years, there is no doubt that women's situation in
most first world countries has improved dramatically. Now that we've
reached the 21st century, many would say that sexist inequality no
longer really exists. However, if we take a brief look at just one
aspect of our lives - work - it is clear that there is still a lot
left to fight for.

Unequal power, unequal
pay
During the year a spate of reports have 'discovered' what a lot of
workers already know - that equal pay for equal work just doesn't
exist.

The not very 'natural' oppression
of women
In the majority of societies half our species (women) has been held
in an inferior position to the other half (men). Why is this the
case? The answer to this question should explain two things. It
should explain why today with all our equal rights legislation women
are still second class citizens, and secondly it should indicate the
mechanisms and tactics we have to use to achieve womens' liberation.

Equality for some women?
It isn't sexism that holds us in the worse paid jobs but rather the
economic reality of the capitalism system. To survive in the market
place any company has to be competitive, to maximise profits. In
todays society, creches and child-care are a luxury that the profit
motive can rarely afford.

Sex, Class and the Queen of
England
Violence and discrimination against women are still very real. Large
numbers of women want to fight back. Aileen O'Carroll looks at some
of the issues. Can women of all classes share a common goal? Should
women organise separately? Is there a connection between fighting
sexism and fighting capitalism?

Year of the Family -
Parents, puritans and poverty
The increased violence in society and fears social decay have even
liberal commentators calling for a to return to family values. Yet
what does this really mean? What are those values? In this article
Aileen O'Carroll will examine the role of the family and the
reasoning behind the Back to Basics campaign.

Gas masks and pantyhose
No one should expect human sexual behaviour to be expressed in only
one way. It's strange that while we accept diversity in tastes in
food, music, book, films when it comes to sex we talk of rights,
wrongs and norms.

Mujeres Libres
Mujeres Libres (Free Women) were a group of women anarchists who
organised and fought both for women's liberation and an anarchist
revolution during the Spanish Civil War. The work they did is truly
inspirational.

Anarchists and the right to
choose
We envisage an anarchist society as a society where people are free
to make choices about their own lives. For women, this includes the
decision whether or not to become pregnant, whether or not to remain
pregnant, whether or not to have children.

Abortion rights -
It's up to you and me
Media 'experts' and commentators have been saying that the
progressive changes that occurred around contraception, divorce and
equal age of consent for gays in Ireland in the early to mid-nineties
were a natural result of modernisation of Irish society and occurred
because liberal politicians decided to push for these changes. We are
supposed to feel that only our rulers can change things, that the
rest of us are pretty powerless. Well, it's not true

New law aids pimps and protection
rackets
Tagged on to the end of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993
were further restrictions on prostitution. Under the new act,
prostitutes are now liable to fines of up to £1,000 and up to
six months in prison.

Burn that witch
'Not Your Girl', a women's radio programme was taken off the air at
Anna Livia FM by an all-male Board of Directors just before
Christmas.

International Women's
Day
International Women's Day (IWD) is on 8th March and is an inherently
political event that started in 1910 when Clara Zetkin proposed that
it be celebrated every year around the world at the Second
International Conference of Socialist Women.

The international
'Anarchist Platform'

We invite you to look
at the 'Anarchist
Platform' points
and if you agree with them to subscribe to this
international anarchist mailing list

Louise Michel
Louise Michel was a French anarchist women who fought in the Paris
commune and after escaping the death penalty spent the rest of her
live in the anarchist movement.

Obituary: A Rebel Spirit
Leah Feldman, who was cremated in London on January 7th, was one of
the ordinary men and women who rarely get into history books but have
been the backbone of the anarchist movement.

Talks by WSM members

Mujeres Libres
The women who founded Mujeres Libres were all active within the
anarchist movement, in the CNT or in the FIJL, however as women they
were in a minority and found it difficult to incorporate more women
into the activist core, either because of the sexism of the men, or
because of the reluctance of the women or a combination of both

Emma Goldman
What initially drew Goldman to anarchism was the outcry that followed
the Haymarket Square tragedy in 1886 in Chicago. Emma Goldman had
followed the event intensely and on the day of the hanging she
decided to become a revolutionary.

Feminism & Anarchism
Basically we view feminism as a progressive movement but one which is
capable of taking up confused and sometimes reactionary demands
because it fails to locate the cause of womens oppression in the
class nature of capitalist society.

Feminism & Anarchism
again
I am going to look at the different traditions of political thought
that have developed to critique this vision of women's role in
society. There are broadly speaking, four theories; Liberal Feminism,
Traditional Marxism, Radical Feminism and Socialist Feminism.

Why women are not yet
liberated?
A lot of the institutionalised oppression that women such as my
mother would have argued against in the 1960's has disappeared. Yet
it is also obvious that women are still far from equal. For the
majority of us, our right to choose the way of life we wish to lead
is as limited as it has always been.

The Left and the Fight for
Women's Liberation
The struggle for women's liberation has generally been bound up with
other, wider social and economic changes. The first written evidence
of equality with men being put seriously on the agenda was during the
reformation starting in the sixteenth century.

Related articles & talks

Church power in the
south...
The Catholic church in Ireland has always been massively supported by
the State and allowed a huge say in the running of the country. This
article will attempt to cover the facts of church power in Ireland
and the long history of State support beginning hundreds of years be
fore the establishment of the 26 county state

Loud and Proud
The coming into effect last June of legislation which decriminalised
certain male homosexual acts was the subject of much celebration in
the gay community. For many it was felt the battle for equality had
been won.